Review: Soulfly – Omen

Palmer reviews Soulfly’s ‘Omen’.

Artist: Soulfly
Album: Omen
Year: 2010
Genre: Metal/Thrash Metal

Soulfly is an American Metal band led by former Sepultura frontman, Max Cavelera. Formed in 1998, Soulfly set off to pick up from the ashes of Max’s previous effort and became a much darker and deeper band, largely due to the loss of Max’s stepson, Dana. Soulfly has a lot of history with me. Songs like “Jumpdaf*ckup” were theme songs for anger, while other songs like “Tree Of Pain” showed just how beautiful their music was capable of being. Soulfly seemed to pack so much potential in the beginning when their self-titled album, Soulfly (1998), debuted in stores, but as of late their albums have been lacking the unique feel that made their earlier music so great.

Omen is an album that has gems buried deep within its crust. It’s just unfortunate that one has to do so much digging to find them. Songs like “Rise Of The Fallen” feature fantastic guest vocal work from Greg Puciato (Dillinger Escape Plan), and other songs such as “Great Depression” and “Soulfly VII” are fantastic tributes to exactly what Soulfly used to be. It’s unfortunate that they’ve strayed so much from their roots. Gone are their beautiful Brazilian tribal influences which have been negatively replaced by generic thrash riffs and beats. A lot of their songs sound like any other thrash metal band now.

Omen is a rather disappointing album and there’s not much in it that kept me going from track to track except the idea that maybe the next song would be another diamond in the rough. Soulfly will always be a special band in my eyes but I will gladly take any of their early work over their latest effort.

57/100

Best Tracks: “Rise Of The Fallen”, “Great Depression”, “Soulfly VII”, “Your Life My Life”

- Palmer Sturman
palmer@musicreview.co.za
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